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NEW DELHI: A parliamentary standing committee on Wednesday highlighted regulatory and implementation challenges in securing environment and forest clearances for coal mining projects and called for structural reforms to streamline approvals as India targets major production expansion.The findings are part of its report on “expediting and simplifying the environment and forest clearance process for coal mining projects,” which was tabled in both houses of Parliament. The panel, headed by BJP MP Anurag Thakur, mentioned in the report that difficulty in securing land for compensatory afforestation, a mandatory requirement under forest clearance rules, was one of the major challenges and suggested a slew of measures to overcome it.The committee said the identification of land was “critical and time-consuming,” with delays exacerbated by the absence of pre-identified land banks in coal-bearing states.While guidelines already permit land banks under state forest departments, the committee recommended that the ministry of environment, forest and climate change and the ministry of coal actively pursue states to develop land banks of degraded forest and suitable non-forest land to speed up approvals. While India has already reached a record 1 billion tonnes of coal production in FY 2024-25, the ministry of coal aims to raise output to 1.5 billion tonnes by 2030.The committee also flagged inconsistency in compensatory afforestation costs across states, which currently range from Rs 9 lakh to Rs 22 lakh per hectare. This variation has created uncertainty and disputes for project developers. It sought explanations for the disparity and urged steps to bring greater uniformity.The report highlighted that obtaining environmental clearance and forest clearance remain a protracted process. On average, EC approvals take 15–18 months for central public sector undertakings and 26 months for private coal blocks. Forest clearance procedures take even longer – 24–30 months for central PSUs and up to 34 months for private miners. The committee called for “concerted efforts” to reduce the timelines for both public and private sector projects.While acknowledging initiatives like PARIVESH, an integrated online portal for environmental, forest, wildlife, and coastal regulation zone clearances, and the single window clearance system, the report said several key approvals—such as those from the directorate general of Mines Safety and the central ground water authority—continue to be processed separately. For complex cases involving multiple agencies, the panel recommended a “harmonised coordination mechanism” to prevent duplication and ensure accountability.The committee underlined that outdated and inconsistent forest land records remain a major source of delay. Since land is a state subject, diversion orders and tree-felling permissions vary widely. It urged coal-producing states to digitise Jamabandi/Khasra maps to clearly demarcate recorded forest, deemed forest and non-forest land, and to comply with recent Supreme Court directions to create consolidated digital forest records, including for unclassed and community forests.
